The present invention relates to a cutting machine of the type constituted by a hacksaw machine, a cold circular saw, a horizontal band saw, an abrasive cutting machine, or the like, having a machine base, a workpiece table, and clamping jaws for holding rod-shaped material to be machined in place on the workpiece table for the machining procedure, and in which at least one of these clamping jaws is movable for the clamping motion at right angles to the material feed direction, the material to be machined can be fed to the cutting machine via a roller track, or rollway, in the plane of the workpiece table, and the severed material can be removed optionally via a roller track arranged behind the cutting machine in the plane of the workpiece table.
In such conventional cutting devices, the problem exists that the rod-shaped material must be dragged across the machine table during feeding and thereby offers considerable resistance to the feed means, which latter is frequently controlled in its feeding movement in correspondence with the length of the severed piece. In many cases, the cutting machine is furthermore constructed so that one of the clamping jaws is fixedly mounted and only the other clamping jaw is movable so that there is also friction between the fixed clamping jaw and the material to be machined during the feeding operation.
To control this problem, it is known to arrange the roller tracks to be liftable and lowerable so that the roller track can be lifted during workpiece advancement. Consequently, the workpiece material being fed cannot come into contact with the workpiece table of the machine base. For cutting machines having a fixed clamping jaw, the additional feature is employed of moving the "fixed" clamping jaw, for the feeding operation, away from the workpiece material by a small amount.
These conventional measures are expensive. It is necessary to construct one or two roller tracks to be liftable and lowerable, requiring several cylinder-piston units, by way of which the roller tracks are supported. Additionally, conduit connections must be provided to the cylinder-piston units, which latter are frequently prone to damage from the outside. Moreover, the aforementioned special feature must be provided for the "fixed" clamping jaw, which likewise necessitates a cylinder-piston unit with corresponding control means.